The Lalan network

The birth of the « Lalan network » is linked to the meeting of remarkable people: Lalan and Marcel Van Thienen.
This couple of artists with national notoriety shared their time between Paris and the South of France.

Created in 1995, the Lalan network, local and cultural organization, is before all a tribute to the memory of the painter « Lalan ». She was from China and in heritage she gave her name to it, Lalan was also a choreographer, a musician and a Pygmalion for a few young artists in Bormes and le Lavandou (Var).
Married to the painter Zao Wou-Ki, Lalan, she was close to the artistic Bohemia of Paris in the fifties before she got married with the sculptor and musician Marcel Van Thienen.
After the tragic accident that killed her, Marcel Van Thienen put Raphaël Dupouy (photograph and ex student of the school “les Beaux-Arts” in Saint-Etienne) in charge of maintaining the dynamic inspired by his late wife.
This is how the Lalan network was created, in order to promote cultural exchanges and artistic creation in all its forms, to « speed » local culture. (Lalan).

Why do we call it a « Network » ?

« In reference to the casual connections, to the web that relationships made, and that we hope to weave between men » explains Raphaël Dupouy.
And what else than the « network » to show this «resistant trend, this necessary struggle, against uniformity and the impoverishment of our collective imagination.” 
Among the several actions organized by the Lalan network, we can mention : the « Bol d’Art » annual contemporary art show, literature meetings, public readings, individual and private exhibitions (photography, painting, etc…), some conferences (Kenneth White, Prix Médicis étranger, etc…), writting groups, discussions (on André Gide, Jean Cocteau and Raymond Radiguet etc…) tributes to great painters (Alfred Courmes, Théo Van Rysselberghe, Emmanuel-Charles Bénézit, The Russians from La Favière, Jean Peské, Henri-Edmond Cross, Alexandre Troin, etc…) but also the edition of books and catalogues.